The Chicken has Achieved Liftoff
by HecateA
Summary: The message that keeps going around camp from child of Hermes to child of Hermes.  They should be afraid.  Really afraid.  Oneshot.


**This came to me because of a line in Harry Potter 7 part 2. "Lightning has struck". I love Harry Potter and I love Katie and I love Travis and I love it all together (o-kay, maybe not _all _together). But because of that this seemed like a pretty good idea for a short oneshot. **

**Disclaimer: Turns out, after a lot of checking passports and paper work- I'm _not _Rick Riordan! So I need a disclaimer now :(**

* * *

><p>The atmosphere of places go all weird when unsettling things are about to happen. When a hurricane's gonna hit, when a war's on the verge of breaking out, when it's the shoot-out of an Olympic game, when the children of Hermes are speaking in code…<p>

Katie shivered as a little girl known as Quickie for her speedy hands during a theft whispered to her brother Josh; "The chicken has achieved lift-off".

"What does it mean?" She asked Annabeth once both of the elfish children had run to find someone else.

Katie had heard it all day. During archery practise Meep had been talking to his girlfriend from cabin 8 Olivia about it, Connor had tried to hire a sky-writing plane to write it across the sky when she'd walked past Chiron's office to bring a little girl who'd scrapped herself to the infirmary, Babyface had been chanting it to himself earlier... These were dark times they lived in, dark times.

"I don't know," Annabeth said. "Frankly, I'm just scared that this is some code that means a big stunt is coming."

"I'm very afraid!" Katie said.

"Mr D has started associating a demigod crime to all demigods. If cabin 11 decides to act stupid now… Let's just say we're all either shrubbery or dead meat. Or dead shrubbery." Annabeth said.

"I'm afraid of them, period. What if they do something? If this involves more chocolate bunnies I am _not _going to take it. And if it traumatises the little kids again? Nuh-uh. Not going to take that either- it took days to get Rose and Lily to sleep after the kumquat incident."

"I don't know, Katie, they're talking to me even less than usual. Sure sign that something is up. I think we're going to have to wait and find-"

"Yo Kels! Kelly stop! Freeze! Stay! Don't move!" A guy called Vincenzo yelled after his sister, running. She paused and he cupped his hands around her ear when he caught up; whispering something Katie was ready to pay 20$ was 'the chicken has achieved lift off'.

"I'm going to go nuts," Katie said. It had been her mission and goal her whole camp life to keep Travis out of trouble. Yeah; he was a little troublemaker with a knack for scaring the little kids and making other messes- all of which she ended up being the one to fix. Why was it so? Katie had no idea. She should just let him get turned into a shrub for eternity and learn his lesson. But she didn't. And now, if the chicken was achieving lift-off, and judging Mr D's delicate patience weakened once again by the Stolls… Now was not the time for flightless birds to get flying lessons. Or… Ever actually.

Maybe that was their plan. To throw chickens from the roof of the Big House and cabins and see how much chaos that would cause. Oh, Katie would _kill _Travis if he did that… And Connor wouldn't be doing so good either. Actually no, she wouldn't do anything to them; because then she'd have to cut a plant into a million pieces with scissors since it was already determined that Mr D would cause damage first.

"I've got to damage control this one." Katie said getting up.

"No you don't. You never have to Katie, you just keep doing it." Annabeth said. "Why?" She asked although Katie was 99.7.5 percent sure Annabeth had a zillion theories.

"I don't know, Annabeth, but I'll catch you later." Katie said getting up.

She stomped across camp looking for Stoll senior.

"He's by the lake." A daughter of Hermes named Jesse said. She turned to look at her brother James.

"The chicken really has achieved lift off, by the way." She said.

"Stop saying that!" Katie said. "What does that even mean?"

Jesse and James grinned that annoying 'we're not telling you so we'll just stand here and smile, trying to be cute' smile the Stolls –especially Travis- had expected.

"Never mind," Katie said. A kid named Billy ran out to join them.

"Hey guys did you hear-"

"Oh my gods- yes the chicken has achieved lift off- stop saying it!" Katie said. She was gonna crack. Pop open like a firework on the fourth of July, even if she would be 4 days early. Then she'd come back from the dead and haunt the Hades out of Travis. Tricky, clever, speedy, funny Travis.

She went over to the lake and crossed a confused looking Percy. Katie caught him by the shoulders when she saw his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. The Stolls are starting to get on my nerves with this chicken stuff. That's all." Percy said.

"You've seen them?" Katie nearly screamed. Percy jumped back, startled.

"Yeah. Travis is near the boathouse. You don't want to know what he's doing."

"No, I don't." Katie sighed. But the idea caught- was this part of the chicken? She had to keep the dang chicken on the ground! And stop helping Travis out of everything. Gods- could she not just give up on the guy?

She opened the door of the boat house. Travis wasn't there.

"Oh great, even Percy's scheming and deceiving now. We're all doomed." She muttered.

"What about Jackson?" Someone asked from behind. Katie nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned around to see Travis Stoll- standing there.

Katie didn't get this kid; he snuck around, ducked in tight spaces, snooped in even weirder places and ran for his life all day- yet he still managed to have his brown hair falling perfectly in the right mix of in-his-eyes-but-not-too-much-so-you-could-still-see-the-bright-mischievous-blue. He always looked cool and just there.

"Finally," she said slamming the boat house door. "I was looking for you."

"Me?" Travis asked.

"Yes you. I want to know what this 'the chicken has achieved lift-off nonsense is." Katie said.

Travis looked at her like she _really _shouldn't know about that.

"No way- Travis, look, you can't just…" Katie said warming up for the same kind of 3-hour speech it'd taken her to talk him out of using the credit card of a parent who'd come to drop off their kid to buy 2 tons of Kool-Aid for the lake. ("But it'll be blue! Percy won't mind!)

"I can't?" He asked. He looked shattered.

"Absolutely not!"

"Oh…" he sounded disappointed. "Can I just know… Why, Katie?"

"If you get in trouble, right now we all do because Mr D is just really childlike and less tolerant than usual right now."

"Whoa- trouble?" Travis asked.

"That's right; trouble. If you pull a prank right now, we're all doomed."

"Prank? Oh… No Katie, you don't get it. 'The chicken has achieved lift-off' isn't a code."

"Right; you kleptomaniacs are all excited because you saw a chicken fly as miraculous as that would be." Katie said, crossing her arms, not buying it.

"Okay, it is a code, but not for that. See, my siblings have wanted me to admit it and ask you for a long time and they were all excited…"

Katie caught her breath.

"Ask me what?" She asked, uncrossing her arms. Travis suddenly looked uncomfortable. Dang he was cute when he was all bashful.

"Umm, will you go out to me, at the Fourth of July?" He asked. Katie smiled.

"Yes. Yes, definitely, Travis." She said. Then, startling even Travis, Connor burst from a bush with his arms in the air yelling "Whoooooooooooooo!"

He hoped out of the bush.

"Good job, Travis! The hippo is out of surgery! The hippo is out of surgery! Aw, wait 'til I tell Robin!"

And with that, Connor ran off yelling 'the hippo is out of surgery!'

"Do you guys have codes for everything?" Katie asked Travis.

"No. We don't have one for if we run out of codes."


End file.
